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Israel’s defense minister toughens campaign against Israeli Arabs

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman outdid himself in his latest salvo against the country’s Arab lawmakers.
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Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has never made any bones about the strong grudge he holds against the Arab members of Israel’s Knesset. He never misses an opportunity to lash out at them, targeting them in every election campaign. His initiative to raise the electoral threshold in order to keep Arab parties out of the legislature, which the Knesset adopted in 2014, resulted in the forced union of the four main Arab political parties.

Not only did his plot fail, the elections held the following year made the union known as the Joint List the third-largest Knesset faction. Despite internal disputes and ideological differences that have emerged on occasion, the glue has held. The lawmakers of the Joint List, like their voters, are fully aware of the danger they face should the alliance disintegrate into its constituent parts.

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